Counting Stars
by lunarchroniclesandcockatiels
Summary: Percy and Annabeth try to deal with all of the problems that surround their life.
_Lately I've been, I've been losing sleep
Dreaming about the things that we could be._

He remembered the day it happened. At first, Percy had just assumed it on be a lump on his knee, but Annabeth, his beautiful, wonderful Wise Girl had made him get it checked out by a doctor.

As things turned out, the lump was cancerous, and Percy didn't have much of a chance to live. He sighed, turning over onto his stomach, so he wouldn't have to stare into the sea of dark nothingness that accompanied him in this hospital room.

Stupid hospital room. Stupid, _stupid_ cancer. Taking everything away from him that he cared about.

His friends, Annabeth, his _future_.

The future which he would never have, thanks to acute lymphocytic leukemia.

Percy turned over once again; although this time onto his back, and his eye caught onto something on the ceiling.

Percy climbed onto his knees, despite the IV in his arm, to get a closer look.

There, in the middle of the ceiling, was a single plastic glow-in-the-dark star, like the ones that could be found at the dollar store.

 _But, baby I've been, I've been praying hard  
Said no more counting dollars, we'll be counting stars_

Annabeth slipped into the hospital room, her fingers reaching down to make sure she had her sword. She sat in the chair directly by the bed, and waited for her husband to wake up.

And waited.

And waited.

Her ADHD getting the better of her, she started drumming her fingers against the smooth, wooden edges of the bed.

Finally, after what seemed like the longest time, a nurse finally appeared at Percy's side. She checked his vitals. Shaking her head, she turned towards Annabeth.

"He's usually up around this time, Mrs. Jackson. But I wouldn't worry, his vitals seemed fine."

Annabeth nodded thank you. As the nurse turned to leave the room, she noticed Percy's eyelids fluttering, and suddenly, he sat up, wide awake.

"Annabeth?" he asked, squinting, as if the scene before him was too good to be true. "That you?"

Annabeth nodded, forcing herself to smile. Percy had been staying at the hospital the past night or so, since the doctors had wanted to monitor the effects the chemo has having on him more closely.

"Yeah, it's me. How do you feel, Percy?" Annabeth questioned.

He smirked. "Like they just put chemicals into my blood. Which they did."

"Yeah."

There was an awkward moment of silence between them. Annabeth knew it wasn't supposed to be like this; it was never like this before the cancer.

Percy cleared his throat, intervening with the eerie silence of the hospital room. "So Annabeth, I've been talking to the doctors lately, and they said that the chemotherapy is starting to work, but they want to keep monitoring me closely. And they're going to try bone marrow transplants."

Annabeth smiled at her husband. "Does that mean the cancer is almost gone?" she asked, sounding more like a small child than the almost twenty-nine year old she was.

Percy looked sad for a moment. "I don't know, Annabeth; I really don't know. But hey," he added, pointing to the ceiling. "Look, there's a star."

Annabeth glanced up, wondering if Percy was going crazy. "Yeah. But it's just a plastic glow-in-the dark star. Nothing much, really."

"Not exactly. Stars symbolize the cycle of life. They also symbolize eternity and time passing, because they are always in the sky, unmoving, while civilizations grow and collapse," Percy looked toward Annabeth, sighing. "Maybe it's a sign that things are going to change."

Annabeth smiled a little. "Hope. That's a good thing."

 _Yeah, we'll be counting stars._

Annabeth and Percy had always wanted children, it was true, even though they both well knew the dangers of being a demigod. But ever since they had found about the cancer, children had become a lost dream that followed Annabeth around everywhere.

And then there was Addie.

Addie had been born two years ago, and had died four months later, right before they had found out about the cancer. Her death had broken Annabeth's heart, and ever since then, there had been an empty spot in Annabeth's heart that couldn't be filled up, no matter how much she tried.

By now, all of her friends had kids, and even her half-brother Matthew had a baby girl. And Annabeth couldn't go anywhere without seeing little kids holding their mother's hand, babies being carried around by their parents, and little kids chatting away happily. It all made her heart ache for her own baby, whom she would never see again.

So there Annabeth sat, on the couch in her and Percy's living room, staring at the pregnancy test in her hands.

Which had two lines.

Maybe the star really was a sign.

 _I see this life like a swinging vine,  
Swing my heart across the line._

The nurse carefully set the breakfast tray down on the table attached to Percy's hospital bed, and pushed it over, so that Percy could reach it easier.

Percy sighed, staring at the same old toast and oatmeal that he had seen on his plate every day for a week now. He missed Annabeth, he missed home, and he missed Camp. He even was starting to miss Clarisse.

Which was probably not a good sign for his sanity.

And then there was the fact that he had lied to Annabeth about the chemotherapy. No one had made any mention of it working.

So why had he lied? Was it worth it to make Annabeth happy for a split second?

Not if she had to find out the truth sometime.

…..

A few minutes later, which seemed like an hour, Annabeth came into the room wearing a big smile on her face.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain," she told him. "How would you like to expand our family?"

"What?" Percy asked, mystified.

"I'm pregnant."

Percy felt a smile slowly making its way onto his face. He grinned up at Annabeth. "That's awesome!"

Annabeth smiled back, a look of true happiness on her face that Percy hadn't seen since Addie was still alive.

"I love you, Wise Girl."

"I know."

 _In my face is flashing signs,  
Seek it out and ye shall find._

Annabeth glanced at the clipboard that held Percy's medical records.

 _Not good, not good, not good,_ she thought. According to the graph, even though Percy's cancer was in "remission," or in the state of being treated, the chemo wasn't improving anything.

Nervous butterflies started to grow in the base of her stomach. What if the chemotherapy didn't work?

"What if he dies?" Annabeth blurted out. The question echoed down the long hallway of the hospital, and Annabeth flinched.

Percy's doctor turned to stare at her. Annabeth absentmindedly wondered why ambrosia and nectar didn't get rid of cancer.

"We are aware that dying is possibly imminent. But we are doing everything in our possibility to stop it, Miss-" The doctor paused a moment to look at his own set of papers. "Mrs. Jackson."

The doctor looked at her sadly, and for a second, Annabeth was reminded of Chiron. The same kind eyes, same sad smile. "You know," he started. "I lost my son to cancer a few years ago. He was the only family I ever had. I won't let you lose your husband without a fight."

…

Annabeth walked through the door, and was greeted by screaming children. She grinned warily at them, wondering where Piper and Jason were.

"I'm in the kitchen!" Piper shouted above the chaos of the room. Annabeth walked over, careful to step over Caleb and Isabelle.

"Hey, Annabeth!" Piper greeted, holding a baby on her hip. "Caleb and Isabelle were so excited when they found out you were coming over!"

As to confirm what her mother said, Isabelle smiled up at Annabeth, and grabbed her hand. Annabeth couldn't help but admit that the almost four year old was adorable.

"How's Percy?" Piper asked quietly, pulling out a chair from the kitchen table to sit down in.

Annabeth shrugged. "The chemo isn't really seeming to work, but the doctor seems like he knows what he's doing."

Piper sighed. "Hey, at least there's that."

"Yeah, I guess," Annabeth said decidedly. "Anyways, how's Jason doing these days?" she asked, changing the subject.

As Piper continued to fill her in on how Jason and the kids were doing, Annabeth glanced around.

Piper, it seemed, had a pretty good life. One husband who didn't have cancer, and three wonderful (if messy) kids.

"How do you do it?" she blurted out.

"Do what?" Piper asked, raising an eyebrow.

Annabeth exhaled. "You know. How do you have such a perfect life?"

Piper shrugged. "I don't."

"Well, how do you manage to keep everything together so well then? You have perfect children, a perfect husband."

"Well, I don't know if I would say _perfect_ , but," Piper grinned. "Jason is pretty awesome. And Annabeth," she lowered her voice. "Don't give up hope. Percy has been through Tartarus with you. He'll make it through cancer. You just have to take this journey with him, and in the meantime, just have a little hope. Okay?"

 _Old, but I'm not that old.  
Young, but I'm not that bold._

Percy sat on the couch, sharing a bowl of popcorn with Annabeth.

"We need a name," she reminded him.

"That's easy. We'll just name him or her Percy or Annabeth Jr."

"We can't do that!"

"Why not? You don't like my name?" Percy asked, smiling. He stretched out his arms. "It's good to be back."

"Yeah," said Annabeth. "You do have to go back soon, though."

"Don't remind me." Percy sighed.

"Hey, Percy?" Annabeth asked.

"Yes?"

"Why did you lie to me about the cancer getting better?"

Percy exhaled. "I don't know. I'm sorry, though, anyways."

"It's all right. I forgive you, Seaweed Brain."

Percy smiled, placing a hand on Annabeth's stomach. "It's kind of weird being almost thirty. You know? You're not really young or old yet, just somewhere in between."

"And you're not really fearless like a twenty year old," Annabeth added. "Or sagacious like the old."

"I don't even know what that means." Percy laughed.

"You know what? Me neither."

…


End file.
